The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1887-08-16
SHALL A BOY BE HONESTY

through each state, 10 90 something w.
wards furnishing criminals, that are
known to live high upon ill-gotten
gains, or the young men who are grow
ing up will many of them adopt
course OF life that will not be q credit
to them or their parents. II is getting
so that the most alluring business open
ings for young men, where the greatest
profit are made, are looked upon as
disrcputablc, and yet those who indulge
in them and make money fast arc al
lowed to go free, and they become
heroes in the eyes of tho young.
If young man were looking for
good opening to make himself well
fixed without very hard work, he would
be apt TO have his thoughts conferred on
selling spurious mining stock, corner
ing the produce market, engaging in
real estate boom, or robbing railway
train. All these branches of industry
are worked successfully, and those
who engage in them arc seldom
punished. 'Boodling" might be added
to the list, that is, being elected to
public position by the people, and sell
in ginfucncc to corporations, giving
away franchises for railroads, ETC., for a
consideration, or robbing tax payers on
contracts, in thousand ways. Not
one in thousand who are crooked in
either of the branches of business men,
TONED above, is punished, and the idea of
prosecuting them is laughed at, until n
young man wonders if it is so very wrong
to do such Il thing as long as those
who do them are received in good So
ciety. There are men who have made
fortunes by forming stock companies
and selling stock at so small percent
age on its alleged face value, that it is
eagerly bought by those who cannot
afford to lose the money. A mine in
the vicinity of the alleged locality of
the cheapstock company has made
money and its stock is worth much,
and this fact is used to induce the dupe
to shed his Money The men who sell
the cheap stock, pretend to have hopes
that it will develop into as good COM.
pany rs the one already rich, but in
nine cases in ten they do not believe
their own statements, and perhaps
have too good scnse.t TO use any of the
money taken for stock in digging n
hole They report occasionally to the
investor that things are booming, and
that within short time the dupe will
see his stock soaring. Then he is told
things are not looking so well. the
weather is against them, and finally
work is abandoned for the winter, and
next spring the company is forgotten.
During the cold winter the victim has
worn his linen ulster with fur collar
on, and has concluded that he has lost
his money, so he is prepared for tho
statement of the mining stock cap
per-" who informs him that his mine
is failure, but he is told of another
scheme that is going to be bonanza,
and he can get in on the ground floor
in the new one, because he has been
unfortunate in the old one. If the
victim is wise. he will stny out But the
man who has invested, has per-
haps told his boys of the boz
naza he is going to have, and they
have watched for il. His face has been
barometer, all the time, and when he
finally tells them that he has been
swinded, they wonder why the swind-
Ter is not punished. They may see the
man who swindled the father, living
high GA wook days. and teaching II
class in Snrday-school on the Sabbath,
and the boys will conclude that the
business of beating people on mining
stocks is better than the business their
father is in, end grow up swindlers be-
fore anybody knows it. A man that
sells that which has no valne at I'LL. in
any sense, to victim. claiming that it
has value present or prospective, should.
be held TO strict accountability, and
punished the same as though he had,
committed highway robbery. The vi
entity of recent Texas train robbery is
being secured by the of icers of the law
to secure the cruel perpetrators of the
robbery. They stopped the train and
robbed it at the point of tho revolver.
They did not claim to be anything but
robbers. They just demanded all the